With the advent of the trend to construct brackets in smaller sizes and particularly to construct edgewise brackets with narrower mesiodistal dimensions, the control of forces between the archwire and the bracket has diminished for the obvious reason that there is less contact between the archwire and the bracket. It therefore becomes evident that there is a need to enhance force control between the archwire and these newly developed brackets in order to obtain suitable orthodontic treatment. One manufacturer has attempted to solve this problem by adding extensions to the mesial and distal sides of the bracket at the archwire slot so as to provide mesial and distal support for the lingual side of the archwire. There are no other known structures directed toward solving this problem.
Heretofore, it has been known to provide archwire retention clips or caps for edgewise brackets, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,128,552 and 4,023,274. However, these clips, along with other known clips, do not include extensions in the mesial and distal sides of the caps for enhancing rotational control.